So if he said it hit shoulder and if his son saw it with a shoulder hit, and the leg was incapacitated, how does a 44 not put that deer down over 800-900 yards? I think deductive logic dictates that either the bullet failed or the OP and his son are lying. Is there a 3rd option?

Thanks trademark, I wasn?t going to get into it with Zee again. I have been a bow hunter for close to 30 yrs and when I don?t do my job of making a perfect text book shot, I try to use equipment that will perform when I don?t . Hence a bullet that has a better track record on heavy bone hits. Because no one is perfect and not a single hunter can make that perfect shot 100% of the time.

And Zee I have no ego problem, me blaming the bullet for my poor shot placement has to do with the pit in the gut feeling of loosing a deer. Even if there is a 10% increase that a hard cast would have made it to the vitals I?ll take it. Oh but wait my son and I will never know because even though you were not there we didn?t see what we thought we saw.

I have never questioned my equipment to cover up my shooting fails. I assume you do the same. I have taken shots where i didnt clearly see where bullet impact was made. Ive gone to videoing every hunt possible so i can see the exact angle and impact. I started handgun hunting with xtps in my 454?s and 44 mags. I had a stellar run of picture perfect results and viciferously defended them to whitworth on other forums. I never had a failure and he had in the past. Then i had a run of unabashed failures and moved on to cast bullets. They just didnt do the damage i wanted. If i one lung an elk with a barnes or aframe, its down in less than 100 yards, when that has happened with cast, the day long chase was on. Then i had cast failures on big animals when hard bone was hit. To date, be my kids and close hunting buds we have shot over 100 animals with aframes and barnes out if 454?s, 44?s, 500?s, 475 and 480?s and 357?s. The barnes work great in 44,?475, 41, and 460/454. This years bovine bash a 45acp shot into a watusi didnt open up well. As far as aframes, never a failure. They open easier than any other hp or soft point bullet and do tremendous damage. They also dont fail. So you may want to consider trying a 240 or 280 grain aframe. Expensive, but the damage it does goes far beyond any solid and makes up for less than perfectShots well.

On a side note, doing alot of video in the last few years ive witnessed many more times a game animal moves a bit just as the gun goes off. No amount of shooting skill and marksmanship will eliminate this variable. Its best to do as much damage as possible just for those instances.

Tradmark and max thanks for the suggestions on the a frames, 2 boxes of the 280 grainers are on the way from midway. Looking forward to working up some loads and testing them out. And thanks to all that had given constructive suggestions..